Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Rayce Day 2 - The struggles continue
Day 1 ended with a slightly broken car at the checkpoint. Since the batteries are locked up by the rayce officials overnight to ensure no tampering or unauthorized recharging, servicing the battery-systems circuitry couldn't happen until 6:30 AM.
Even with this seemingly early start, the car wasn't ready to go until early in the afternoon. Fred was made quite busy again by the required repairs. It was also a dark, cloudy day around Weatherford, Texas, meaning these batteries would be stressed yet again with little aid from the solar panels.
Finally, after hours of slow, tedious repairs and some design changes, the car gets its body mounted, driver strapped in and canopy closed. With no sun to charge the already low batteries, there wasn't much hope for the day's mileage. Even so, 60 miles later, the car was packed up in the trailer and driven to its next checkpoint in Broken Arrow, 312 miles away from the Weatherford checkpoint. The car could have gone further, but rain had started to pour hard on the fragile body. The Red River Raycer team should feel no shame in having to trailer the car, since the weather and distance of the stage conspired to force the same decision for most of the competing cars.
With the long day, the team didn't get to their checkpoint until 10:30 PM, and into their barely-adequate motel rooms until past midnight. It's going to be a short, rough night of sleep for this team. They do, however, expect to start from this checkpoint early in the next morning.
Even with this seemingly early start, the car wasn't ready to go until early in the afternoon. Fred was made quite busy again by the required repairs. It was also a dark, cloudy day around Weatherford, Texas, meaning these batteries would be stressed yet again with little aid from the solar panels.
Finally, after hours of slow, tedious repairs and some design changes, the car gets its body mounted, driver strapped in and canopy closed. With no sun to charge the already low batteries, there wasn't much hope for the day's mileage. Even so, 60 miles later, the car was packed up in the trailer and driven to its next checkpoint in Broken Arrow, 312 miles away from the Weatherford checkpoint. The car could have gone further, but rain had started to pour hard on the fragile body. The Red River Raycer team should feel no shame in having to trailer the car, since the weather and distance of the stage conspired to force the same decision for most of the competing cars.
With the long day, the team didn't get to their checkpoint until 10:30 PM, and into their barely-adequate motel rooms until past midnight. It's going to be a short, rough night of sleep for this team. They do, however, expect to start from this checkpoint early in the next morning.
